BOOMER IN AWESOMEVILLE

The long and winding road.

Ode to a departed man of the world, a Boomer in Awesomeville.

Some people you save for the long haul, guys you know will be around,

you’ll catch up with them later with they pass through town.

They never change, you can count on that,

from their Romeo slippers to their old ball cap.

What you’ve heard about them since high school is a Jack London story,

with a wife and kid to share the glory.

One day he’s finishing the details for a high end shed,

the next comes a facebook post you can’t believe you read.

For a man who points on the world map and says, “I’ve been there,”

and points to another place and says, “We can go if we dare.”

He traveled lakes and rivers, the ocean was his friend,

and still he looked for more places he’d never been.

To stay or leave, he always had a plan,

he was, and will be, a Bulldog traveling man.

Paul was an outdoors man. It wasn’t living off the land, but he once killed and ate a squirrel just because he could.

With the same sure aim, he saw a rat in his garage and dropped it with an up shot off a rafter. He bagged his first roof with the same shot.

He drove one of the all-time memorable high school cars. There was only one metal flake green Barracuda with a bubble fast back.

Paul liked speed. He had one of those fast go-karts, not the old lawn mower engine kind. He drove it like Steve McQueen; I drove it into a ditch on the SWOCC campus.

He had more flair than the usual high schooler, a flair that sent him on a path of adventure. That spirit led him to Boomer in Awesomeville.

Those who know him best carry those stories.

I hope you share them.